Do UNESCO World Heritage Sites Influence International Tourist Arrivals? Evidence from Italian Provincial Data

This paper investigates—through dynamic panel data techniques—the impact of Unesco World Heritage List (WHL) sites on international tourist arrivals. Relying on a sample of Italian provinces over the period 1997–2015, a positive effect of WHL inscriptions on foreign visitors’ attractiveness is found. These results provide a further contribution to the debate about the role of WHL in fostering tourism, and, differently from other analyses on the Italian regions, support the conclusion that the inscription in the list can play a role in promoting attractiveness